


Serendipity

by tinylilremus



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Jester accidentally realises some things she hadn't realised before
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-17
Updated: 2018-10-17
Packaged: 2019-08-03 12:43:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16326458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinylilremus/pseuds/tinylilremus
Summary: Jester makes an impulsive decision in trying to convince Beau to go for it with Yasha. She's never been more surprised by the consequences.





	Serendipity

**Author's Note:**

> I physically cannot stop thinking about these two fictional characters who are controlled by imagination and dice rolls. Help me.

Jester has always prided herself on living in the moment. Sometimes it gets her into trouble – like the time she pranked that noble client of her mother's and had to leave Nicodranas – but other times it works out beautifully and far better than she could have ever imagined.

They're in the room she's sharing with Beau. Beau is sitting cross-legged on one side of the bed, allowing Nott to weave a large number of wildflowers into her hair. Caleb is on the other side with his back against Jester's bed and a book propped up on his knees. He wanted company, but didn't want the noise of the tavern below, a feeling Jester understands. Sometimes you just want to be alone with people.

Jester, pacing up and down along the foot of the bed, is on a mission. After weeks of watching Beau pine after Yasha, she has decided this is the day she’ll finally convince Beau to just tell her how she feels.

"Yeah but, how do you _know_ you know you know?" asks Beau. "What if it's just a thing I'm feeling now? What if my feelings change? What if when I tell her, she laughs?"

"I really don't think Yasha is that kind of person," says Nott, gently. "At worst, I think she'll just give you a straight no."

"A ‘straight’ no would _actually_ be the worst," Beau mutters.

"You should just ask if you could kiss her," Jester offers. "That's what I would do."

"And die of embarrassment? No thank you. Asking someone if you can kiss them is kind of a big deal, Jess. I'm sure there are steps before that."

"Oh my god, Beau, kissing is not a big deal, like at all." She's seen and done enough of it in her life to consider herself something of an expert. If Yasha feels the same way about Beau (as Jester suspects she does) it will probably be the most drama-free five minutes of her life.

What Beau needs is a demonstration, and as Jester's eyes lock on Caleb, completely absorbed in his book, her plan comes together in an instant.

"Watch this, Beau," she says, bending to tap Caleb on the shoulder as she does. "Caleb, can you help me show something to Beau quickly?"

"I – of course," he says, placing a sheet of parchment between the pages he was reading to mark his place before standing up. "What do you need me to do?"

"I need you to be Yasha," Jester explains. "I'll be Beau."

She imitates Beau's much deeper voice as she says it and can't help but be pleased at the way the corners of Caleb's mouth tug up in amusement.

"Alright Beau, here's what to do if Yasha says no when you ask her for a kiss," says Jester, taking a step closer to Caleb. He watches her as she approaches, his ocean-blue eyes apprehensive, but curious. " _'Hi Yasha, you look very pretty today.'_ "

" _'Thank you, Beau, that's very kind of you,’_ " Caleb replies in a softer version of his normal voice. " _'I think you look pretty too.'_ "

"This is already bullshit," scoffs Beau. "She would not respond like that. And that's not how I sound, Jess."

Jester shushes her. "No talking during the demonstration. You'll take away from the accuracy."

The amusement on Caleb's face widens. She loves his sense of humour, so it always means a little bit more when Caleb finds her funny.

" _'Say, Yasha, would it be alright if I kissed you now?'_ " she asks Caleb who does an amazing impression of Yasha being flustered.

" _'Er, you're lovely, Beau, but I think not today. I hope you understand.'_ "

" _'Of course, Yasha. Thanks anyway.'_ " She looks back at Beau, who's staring at the pair of them in mild disgust. "And then you just turn and walk off to do something else. Got it?"

"And if she agrees?" says Nott, who has paused her work on Beau's hair, seemingly enraptured by Jester and Caleb's performance.

"Well, then Beau would say _'Yasha, may I please kiss you?_ ' to which Yasha would say..."

She looks at Caleb expectantly.

" _’Er, sure?’_ "

Jester has to stifle a giggle. There really couldn't be anyone better to play the serious and awkward Yasha than Caleb.

"The rest is pretty straightforward from there," Jester explains, taking another step closer to Caleb so that there's hardly any space between them now. "You just get a bit nearer and just..."

She allows herself the briefest moment to admire the freckles across his nose that she's never been close enough to notice before and to give him a small wink before pressing their lips together.

She doesn't know what she was expecting kissing Caleb to feel like, probably mostly scratchy because of his slightly chapped lips and the scruff on his chin. She's not expecting the way her stomach suddenly swoops or how fast her heart is suddenly beating. She's not expecting to clutch on to the front of Caleb's coat so tightly, or for the hands that settle on her waist and neck.

She's certainly not expecting Caleb to kiss back with such gentleness and longing that it steals the air from her lungs.

She's sure she hears the door open and close, but forgets it almost immediately as Caleb deepens the kiss.

Jester has kissed people before, has been kissed before, but something about this is different. At first she thinks it's because they're just so in character, but then the hand on her neck is moving up to tangle in her hair and suddenly she's seeing the last year of her life in a completely different light. All of Caleb's little touches, the concern for her in his voice, the invitations to help him with his work – were the signs there this whole time?

She thinks about all her flirting with him; how she was sure at the time it was just because she liked seeing how pink he would turn, and she supposes that that's still true, but now she knows why and oh. _Oh_.

Apparently kissing, with the right person, is a huge deal.

When they break apart, hearts racing and eyes wide, she takes a moment to catch her breath before turning her head to look at Beau, but it seems she and Nott have left. The only evidence they were there before is the small array of wildflowers on the bed.

Swallowing whatever she was about to say to Beau, she turns back to Caleb who is staring at her completely stunned as he slides his hand down from her hair to softly cup the back of her neck.

Ten minutes ago, this was just her friend, Caleb, who looked out for her and whom she liked to play-flirt with sometimes.

Now, he was... he was...

"So, I personally think that went rather well, but apparently our audience didn't agree." Caleb is smiling wryly, trying to put his masks up again, but Jester can see the vulnerability and uncertainty there.

"Caleb," she manages to finally breathe out. Her hands are still clutching tightly to the lapels of his coat. "How... how long have you felt that way?"

"Since about a minute ago when I heard them leaving," Caleb replies, and though she normally adores his one-liners, this is something she doesn't want to miss in between the jokes.

 _"Caleb,"_ she warns. "I'm being serious right now."

"Sorry, being a facetious bastard is an ugly force of habit," he says apologetically. "To tell the truth, it wasn't very long after I met you. Probably for certain when we went to Chastity's Nook and you left that surprise in one of the books."

"Oh yeah, that was fun," Jester laughs. She had always thought that if someone was going to fall in love with her, it would be when she was deliberately trying to impress them with her looks or how cultured she was. The idea that it had been one of her silly childish pranks that made Caleb fall for her made Jester feel light and giddy – as if, if it weren't for Caleb there anchoring her to the ground, she would be floating along the ceiling.

"I dare say it was more of a recent discovery for you?" He's looking at her so intently, with so much warmth and she drinks it in. She spent most of her childhood being shushed into rooms and out of sight; it's a thrill to know that Caleb isn't just looking at her. He's actually _seeing_ her.

"I think I've probably felt it for a while," begins Jester, unable to stop the smile that's beginning to overtake her features, "but it was only just now that I realised what it actually was."

Caleb laughs and presses his forehead to Jester's.

"I didn't think it would ever actually happen, and certainly not like this."

"You don't regret it do you?" she asks in a small voice. Even though she's sure that Caleb's not lying about his feelings, her mother's story has taught her that people's feelings change, sometimes suddenly. What if Caleb had just gotten everything he wanted just as she's discovering everything she wants?

"My dear Jester, it would be completely impossible for me to regret this," he says as the hand around her waist reaches up to cover one of hers clutching his lapels. "You can be fully assured that I am feeling whatever the direct opposite of regret is right now."

"Me too," she admits. Smiling, she angles her head to kiss him again. She can't believe that that feeling of being wanted and needed has been within arm's reach for months now and she just wasn't paying attention. When they break apart, she starts giggling and can't stop, drunk off of the sudden rush of new emotions.

"Thank the gods for Beau's crush on Yasha, ja?" Caleb is laughing now too. He wraps his arms completely around Jester for a second before moving away to retrieve a flower from the bed which he then tucks behind her ear. It's sunny and yellow and looks how she feels inside at the gesture. "And thank the gods for a definitive answer at last: Tieflings do, indeed, blush."

"You're one to talk," she says, pressing the back of her hand to one of his burning cheeks. She takes another full look at that face, that face that was always handsome but is now somehow impossibly beautiful, and smiles. "Thank you, Caleb."

"Nothing to thank me for," he whispers, pressing a kiss to her forehead before pulling her into his arms and just holding her for the longest time.

There has never been a reward for living in the moment quite like this one.

 


End file.
